The use of computer systems and computer-related technologies continues to increase at a rapid pace. This increased use of computer systems has influenced the advances made to computer-related technologies. Indeed, computer systems have increasingly become an integral part of the business world and the activities of individual consumers. Computer systems may be used to carry out several business, industry, and academic endeavors. The wide-spread use of computers has been accelerated by the increased use of computer networks, including the Internet.
Many businesses use one or more computer networks to communicate and share data between the various computers connected to the networks. The productivity and efficiency of employees often requires human and computer interaction. Users of computer technologies continue to demand that the efficiency of these technologies increase. Improving the efficiency of computer technologies is important to anyone that uses and relies on computers.
Data stored on a computing device may become corrupted and inaccessible. A backup of the data may be performed in order to restore the data in the event the data becomes corrupted and inaccessible. A backup refers to making copies of the data. These copies of data may be used to restore the original data after a data loss event. Backups may be useful for many purposes. For example, backups may restore data following a disaster. This may be referred to as disaster recovery. In addition, backups may restore a small number of files that have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.
In order to conserve storage space within a storage device, duplicate data may not be stored. Deduplication techniques may be implemented so that only a single copy is stored within the storage device. Different backup processes may backup a file to the storage device. These various processes may cause deduplication techniques to be ineffective, which may lead to duplicate data being stored on the storage device. As a result, benefits may be realized by providing systems and methods for enabling deduplication of files across various backup processes.